Interstate 40 runs a long way across the United States and it bisects Tennessee from west to east, from Memphis on one end to Knoxville on the other. The distance between those two cities is roughly 380 miles, and Nashville sits in between, the Vanderbilt radius to the Volunteer diameter. There are many signs as …
The idea of stomping on the terra is new for the old guard, and the kids who have started to climb the masts and run the boats have the look of new cops at a riot. They are hungry for violence and feel the rhythm of a yet-begun protracted battle thrumming in their veins.
I. In Grapevine at a big resort they had Christmas lights on public display, and a show about Ice you could pay $30 to see. We took pictures and saw the lights and then we drove home. Then I stood in the kitchen and I looked in my freezer all for free. (USA! USA! USA!) …
(I wrote this years ago, and it represents what my poetry style has turned into. I almost said ‘evolved into’ but even I don’t take myself seriously enough for that.) I. When we lived on Bolivar every neighbor we had was crazy just like now but less noisy. One lady saw me putting up Christmas …
(Originally published in Boston’s Weekly Dig. This is a revised version.) Recently, I learned a hard lesson. A lesson about boundaries. A lesson, even, about interpersonal communications. A lesson about the dick you can’t take back. I’m an academic – a political scientist – so I spend a lot of time hanging around with professor …
Last weekend, Diana and the dogs and I went to my mother’s house to make Christmas cookies. This is a tradition that’s been in my family for as long as I’ve been alive: one day in December we gather an industrious team and start cutting cookies out and baking them and then decorating them with …
I wrote this in 2007, but surprisingly I still feel much the same way. A poll was out on Monday from Zogby that showed a majority of Americans polled — 87% of them, to be exact — see 9/11 as the “most significant historical event of their lives.” At first I was inclined to think …